show and tell

[oldsoldja]

got a new 7x57 thats getting a lefty mannlicher.


And the .458 is going along with gsi stocks and a new receiver.


And lastly me with a big nasty tick burrowing in my leg.

[hoytcanon]

Tom... don't be flashing that stock around too much! That .458 is ported like a brick of Swiss cheese... and good thing too. That fluted slug-slinger is very cool... I'd have that one in a thumbhole stock pretty quick.

[mechanic]

I've seen deer ticks, but that's the first coon tick I've known of......
 
Nice rifles.  If you ever need a baby sitter, just let me know.  (For the rifles, not the coon).
 
Ben

[Dinny]

Oh My! What kind of animal is that on your head?!

Thanks, Dinny

[petemi]

Those are some sweet Handis    I too survived 13 years of Catholic school    Coons are sweet as babies, but most I've known soured as they got older.  I often wondered if neutering them would keep them good pets.    An old lady I once knew had a pet skunk  ( a complete skunk).  It was a nice pet and never sprayed.  Litter box and house broken.  She claimed it didn't smell........but I could smell it.  She was probably just used to it or too old.

Enjoy those rifles,

Pete

[gendoc]

pete, we cut our pet coons and they make great pets.....even my lil'jack (jack Russell) share's his domain with'um.
maw-maw has raised many with grandkids, being what she professionally is, never a wonder about disease.
many would be suprized of how clean they are.
kinda like   d-con... her pet bobby !!!!!

[petemi]

Yeah John, coons are clean critters.  A close friend of mine has had several over the years......all were not cut and eventually departed for the wild.  It's nice to learn about a friendly bobby.  I banded birds for a Nature Center that had a small zoo of native stuff.  The bobby there had lost a front paw in a trap, and she was a bi-ch.  Go near her pen and she'd snarl and growl at ya.  Her enclosure had a double entry and we could close her off while we fed and watered her.  She was hell on wheels.  They also had a brother and sister pair of fox.  The male was the same as the cat...nasty.  The little lady loved to climb in my lap and be cuddled.  How'd you explain that?  Both orphaned at the same time and both treated the same way.

I'm sorry guys, I don't mean to pirate the thread.  It's just that John has a lot of critter experience to share.

Pete

[oldsoldja]

Ive raised over 70 of them, all orphans. They all knew their names, some are more aloof than others. Some your glad to see leave and others youll always remember and wish they would stay.  My cats and dogs all got along fine with them. When I run across one of mine in the woods after they have been free they always frisk me for cheetos or whatever I have. Once they are free we dont ever let them back in the house for fear of disease and parasites. Very smart and fun animals when they are hand raised. Around 5pm seemed to be the bewitching hour when they get spunky and start to cause trouble. Ive had one that would ride the atv with me, sitting on the gastank with his paws on the handlebars like he was keeping watch. If you ever find some young ones id highly recommend raising them for a fun experience.

[petemi]

Raising almost any critter is a neat experience....everything from dogs and cats thru horses, sheep, goats and cows.  Plus all the wild critters and birds.  The tough time is letting go. death, sale, release, etc.  Don't ask me how I know.  We put lots of birds back in the air over the years, a Peregrine included.  It's labor intensive, heart rending but worth it....for younger folks.  Sometimes, the ones that can't make it tear your heart up.  Others have it made and a predator nails them.  Then there are the successes that make it, live and reproduce.  I had one bird who's broken wing we fixed, banded and release was killed by a car eighteen years later.  I'd say we won that one.

A kinda neat story:  A guy was golfing and found a Purple Martin on a golf course with a broken wing.  He put him in the shade of a tree.  After a little bit, he worried about it.  Came back, put the bird in his golf shoe box, put it in his truck, parked his truck in the shade and went out on the course and hit a hole in one.  He brought the bird to us, and our vet did the best he could.  "Steve Martin" could fly, but never well enough to hawk insects on the wing.  I was working for USFWS that summer and had the YACC kids take him along and feed him insects during the day.  In the Fall, when the bugs gave out, a biologist friend of mine helped me place him in the World of Birds at the Bronx Zoo.  Because he was now unafraid of humans, the last I saw him he was entertaining little kids.

I ramble...sorry.

To stem any questions, I was a Federal and multi-State licensed bander and rehabilitator for almost 20 years.

Pete

[oldsoldja]

Thats a good story. We never had a bird but we would've tried. My wife was a dog catcher and became a rehabilitator which is what got us into the menagerie. Its very fullfilling work.

[Oldshooter]

Well I survived Catholic school as well, but faired better I think!    amazing what Nuns with sticks can do to a fellow!   
 
Nice guns, as far as the coon goes, one of my Dads favorite sayings was "just like a coon to crap in his own dish" generally refering to sumpn me or my brothers did that irritated him! I hold no hard feelings for coons, don't invite em in much! 

[briarpatch]

Worked with a guy, his son caught a baby coon and put it in a cage, bit him all over his hands. The guy got to thinking about it and talked to a doctor they wanted the coon and sure enough it had rabies.
If its in the wild I leave it in the wild. Im sure Many apreciate the work you do with animals.

[AtlLaw]

I grabbed a baby coon one nite when I was a kid...    thought it would make a neat pet...    Did you know they can turn a hundred and eighty degrees and bite when you got 'em by the scruff of the neck?   
 
Speaking of raising wild critters, I was telling Kathy last night I wanted to try falconry when I retire.  I'd have to trap a less then one year old red tailed hawk... She didn't think keeping it in the basement was a good idea so I suggested our bedroom.    Said it was nice and quiet... nothing ever happened there... 
 
I forgot how mean she can be... 

[mechanic]

Richard,
You better start wearing that murdercycle helmet all the time..........
Ben

[petemi]

Richard, get your falconer's license and let me know if I can help.  I've trapped, banded and released over 2000 hawks and probably about 600 owls.  Red-tails are a piece of cake to catch, getting the right one is the tricky part.  Do some research into the various sub-species, Krider's, etc.  You have several sub-species migrating through your area.  The females are larger than the males.  I'd suggest a honking big first year female.  That may be worth a trip to Jawja.    A banding sub-permitee of mine got a faconry permit in Florida.  We trapped, banded and released about a dozen 'Tails before we got the "One".  It'd be great if they'd allow you a Peregrine.  I've trapped and released those all down the east coast from NJ to Florida.  The interesting thing is most of the birds we got in Florida were Greenland birds.  We got three wearing Royal Museum of Copenhagen bands.

Pete

[Oldshooter]

Richard, Sir, you never cease to a bright light here. You keep coming up with ideas like a facon in the bedroom and you may be put on the endagered species helmut, or not!
 
 
"Cause nothing ever happens there"    Brightness to my day pardner, brightness to my day!

[oldsoldja]

Well I survived Catholic school as well, but faired better I think!    amazing what Nuns with sticks can do to a fellow!   
 
Nice guns, as far as the coon goes, one of my Dads favorite sayings was "just like a coon to crap in his own dish" generally refering to sumpn me or my brothers did that irritated him! I hold no hard feelings for coons, don't invite em in much! 

Tame coons will walk away and go crap in the bushes and then come back. Busted.

[oldsoldja]

Richard, get your falconer's license and let me know if I can help.  I've trapped, banded and released over 2000 hawks and probably about 600 owls.  Red-tails are a piece of cake to catch, getting the right one is the tricky part.  Do some research into the various sub-species, Krider's, etc.  You have several sub-species migrating through your area.  The females are larger than the males.  I'd suggest a honking big first year female.  That may be worth a trip to Jawja.    A banding sub-permitee of mine got a faconry permit in Florida.  We trapped, banded and released about a dozen 'Tails before we got the "One".  It'd be great if they'd allow you a Peregrine.  I've trapped and released those all down the east coast from NJ to Florida.  The interesting thing is most of the birds we got in Florida were Greenland birds.  We got three wearing Royal Museum of Copenhagen bands.

Pete

Do others trap and check them elsewhere and ever contact you and let you know how far they travel?  You have a very interesting life there Petemi.

[petemi]

USFWS Bird Banding Lab maintains the central data base where all U.S. banders file their records.  When a banded bird is encountered and reported the bander gets the encounter information.  Other countries, the U.K. and Denmark for example, do the same. Peregrine Falcons, for one, migrate as far Greenland to Argentina and back.  Much of it over water.  They can take and eat sea birds on the wing.  A former banding partner told me the other day that she got a report back on a Red-Tailed Hawk found dead hit by a car.  She banded it 21 years ago.  I found a banded Brant, a small sea goose, dead, frozen in the ice one time.  He was 22 years old.  It was a very interesting twenty years of my life.  I started out banding song birds and quickly changed over to raptors (hawks and owls).  For me, the little dinks were too tiny.  I preferred something I could get my hands on.  By the way, falconers wear gauntlets for the bird to fly to and land.  A bander can't run nets and handle birds with gloves on, so once in a while you get nailed.

Pete

[garbhead]

Back in the 70's a friend of mine raised one up and somehow discovered it loved beer!!  It was funny, he would put down a bowl of beer, the coon would drink until he couldn't hardly walk. He would then nap a while, but the very first thing he would do is slowly crawl back to the beer ....  He drank just like I did...drink, sleep, crawl, drink more

[AtlLaw]

...drink, sleep, crawl, drink more

Ah yes... I remember the late 60s early 70's!   
 
Well kinda...     Now that I think about it those years are kinda hazy... 

[squirrelslayer]

Friend of mine had one of course named Bandit and our favorite was feeding him sugar cubes next to the sink. With water in the sink he'd try to wash them and get awfully flustered.

[FPH]

Cuttin a boar Coons makes a world of difference in their disposition, Skunks too.

Richard Falconry is fun.........you should give it a try.  Use to find hundreds in E TX that were hit by cars or randomly shot and needed some help........weather they agreed or not.